FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S LETTER TO THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR CONVENTION

Seattle, October 7, 1941

[New York Times, October 8, 1941.]

Please extend my warm personal greetings to the officers
and delegates attending the sixty-first annual convention of
the American Federation of Labor and my best wishes for a
successful and constructive meeting in the interests of your
members and all the American people. Your delegates represent
the largest membership in the history of the federation.

This meeting is an event of international significance.
It is a symbol of that freedom which we, in the United
States, enjoy and must make every sacrifice to maintain.

As hosts of distinguished representatives of the
underground labor movements of countries enslaved by Hitler,
you, at this convention, need no reminder of what is at stake
for the free workers of America in the present emergency.

The threat of Hitlerism is directed not only at labor,
even though labor is among the very first that will suffer
therefrom. It is aimed at all of us-every man, woman and
child who believes in freedom. It menaces everything that we
cherish as Americans and free men.

The American people have, therefore, pledged everything
in their power that those freedoms, without which free trade
unions and free institutions cannot survive, shall never be
taken away from them.

To protect those freedoms we shall, and must, devote
every bit of human, physical and spiritual energy which we
possess.

Our program of defense our production of ships, planes,
guns, tanks-must be all-out. It shall be limited by only one
factor-the amount necessary to overwhelm the Nazi hordes.

I know that every one of you, and the millions whom you
represent, will lend every effort and make every necessary
step to accomplish this end.

Every aspect of our national defense hinges on greater
industrial production. The government has set up machinery to
adjust industrial disputes in the full confidence that it is
adequate to solve problems which may arise on defense jobs in
all fairness and justice to the parties concerned.

The Conciliation Service of the United States Department
of Labor and the National Defense Mediation Board provide
ample facilities for the adjustment of differences. The time
has come when the services of such agencies must be used
before any recourse is taken to a strike or lockout, and I
call now upon labor and management to cooperate at all times
to that end.

This is not the time for idle promises. This is not the
time to take chances with the national safety through any
stoppage of defense work or defense production. Instead, this
is the time for all of us to work in harmony for the good of
the individual and the common good of all the people of these
United States.

Every American owes that to himself and to the nation,
which has given him so much.

Yes, this nation has given to you and given to me the
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and these
are among the greatest blessings of mankind. It is our job,
our everlasting job, to preserve them as we have known them
and to make whatever sacrifice is necessary as individuals or
as groups in order to do so.

To do anything else would be to threaten their
destruction and our own at the same time.

In this hour when civilization itself is in the balance,
organizational rivalries and jurisdictional conflicts should
be discarded. Only by united action can we turn back the Nazi
threat. The establishment of peace between labor
organizations would be a patriotic step forward of
incalculable value in the creation of true national unity.

I am certain that the members of the American Federation
of Labor will do their full part in carrying through the
program to which we as a nation are committed and that all
other responsible groups will do likewise. That is the
contribution the American people will demand of all groups.
That is the contribution the American people are determined
they shall have for the preservation of home, family and
nation.

Yours is a great responsibility. Workers in bondage
throughout the world look to you as producers of the weapons
of freedom to release them from slavery. I know you will not
fail them.